Peace and Justice History – December 22

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Today in Peace and Justice History

Dec. 22, 1944

African-American women during World War II had difficulty volunteering to serve in the war effort. Negro enlistment in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was limited to 10 percent of enlistees (reflecting the Black proportion of the U.S. population and known as “ten-percenters”). Only the officers were trained in integrated units but all served in racially segregated units and lived and ate in “colored-only” facilities. During the war, 6,520 Black women served as WACs.

Black women were completely banned from the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) until the last year of the war. Through the efforts of Director Mildred McAfee and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, Secretary of the Navy (and later the first Secretary of Defense) James Forrestal pushed through their admittance. On this day, a huge day for justice history, the Navy held a swearing-in ceremony for the first two Black WAVES officers, Lt. Harriet Ida Pickens and Ens. Frances Wills. Of 80,000 WAVES members, only 72 Black women ultimately served.

Dec. 22, 1969

Justice History: John Trudell, known as "the voice of Alcatraz," speaks with news media representatives regarding negotiations with the federal government for title to Alcatraz Island.

On this day in peace and justice history, the original Radio Free Alcatraz, a pirate radio station, broadcast for the first time. The effort used the airwaves of Berkeley, Calif., Pacifica radio station KPFA. The voice of Alcatraz was Johnny Trudell, an American Indian ally who had occupied Alcatraz Island, the San Francisco Bay site of the former prison.

Listen and learn more

Dec. 22, 1993

Operation “Toys for Guns” started in New York City. The project was funded (for $10,000) by electronics CEO I.M. Rainmaker. The operation, done in cooperation with local police, targeted crime, guns, and the glorification of violence. “Toys for Guns” offered a $100 voucher redeemable at Toys ‘R’ Us for a firearm turned in to the police.

How it happened

More justice history: Paramilitaries associated with ruling Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, for its Spanish name, Partido Revolucionario Institucional) slaughtered 45 peasants in the village of Acteal in the state of Chiapas. The federal government then occupied the territory with over 70,000 troops. They then expelled humanitarian observers stationed in the area to monitor the treatment of the indigenous people who lived there.

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